Living on the Edge: The Alaska Picture for the Last Post

The Alaska Picture for the Last Post

Apparently my blog has a mind of its own. These pictures were supposed to be included. So I decided to add a few more. It was an amazing trip. We spent 10 days there and we could have spent 10 times that! It's back on our Someday List.

That's Denali in the background. My girls look so young there...well it was 4 years ago. They were 6 and 8 that summer, and I was still 39 (for the first time!).

Just another gorgeous view.

Pink Fireweed filled this valley.

Calving glacier. This was cool!

This is Gerald Sousa. he is wearing bib #10 in this year's Iditarod. We met him when we were staying in the town of Talkeetna. It's a town that's one of the Gateways to Denali. The afternoon that DD went on his dream fishing trip, we went on a ride with a sled team.

Gerald picked us up at our campsite and we started talking...turns out that he was born in Eureka...where we lived at the time! Small world isn't it? We spent the afternoon learning about racing dogs and the girls got to hold the newest puppy. The dogs have to train in the summer. They have a special summer sled with wheels. They train by pulling the sled, sometimes loaded with tourists like us. They can go at a pretty good clip.

At least until they get to the creek. It was a little unnerving as they headed straight into the water. Thought we were going to go swimming, but they stop at the last minute and cool off and quench their thirst. Notice the one on the far left laying down? It was pretty warm in August. Also notice that Gerald and his helper are holding onto the dogs....otherwise we may have gone for that swim!

Did you notice that the dogs are a bit on the small size? This is the kind of dog they use for racing. They are built for speed. The bigger Huskies that we picture as sled dogs are not as fast. They are the work "horses" of the mushing world. The teams in Denali use the big husky dogs because they pull heavy sleds of supplies in the winter.